Silver and Gold Leng Medal Memories, Update no.2. Uplifting Conversations

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
A Silver Leng Medal for Scots song singing

After some years researching the history of printed Scottish music and Scottish music publishing, I’m currently using oral history (talking to people about their memories) to find out what they recall about Dundee’s Leng Medal Scots Song Competitions. Did participation lead to a lifetime of music and song? Or stage fright?!  What do people remember?

I began the project a couple of months ago, and I posted an update a month ago. It feels like time I posted another one, so here goes!

You’d be surprised how many people remember their music teachers. You’d also be surprised how many people have kept their Leng medals! For gold medal winners, Mozart Allan’s Morven Scottish song book was a prize for a number of years,  certainly into the 1970s. From the late 1990s, the prize changed to Wilma Paterson and Alasdair Gray’s lavish Songs of Scotland, published in 1996.

Are there any gold medallists out there from the 1980s or 1990s? What was your prize book? Have you still got it?

What I find so enjoyable about this project, is how uplifting these conversations are! Participants talk with such enthusiasm and affection about singing in school – not just in the Leng Medal competitions – and about other musical activities that enriched their childhood. Sir John Leng would be astonished at the impact his endowment has had.  I wish he could be a fly on the wall!

I haven’t nearly finished my interviews yet – as a part-time researcher, I’m just slowly and steadily making progress. Indeed, I’m heading to Dundee tomorrow for some face-to-face meetings. And then on Thursday, I’ll see about sending out some more meeting invites.

(If today’s posting is the first you’ve heard of my research project, then you can find out more about it here, and you can get in touch with me here. It’s not too late!)

Athenaeum Award Research Project: Silver and Gold Leng Medal Memories

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Microsoft Forms icon. Cartoon person sitting holding a notebook or tablet.

And I’ve started. I’m inching towards the part of the project where I start interviewing people, to see what they remember about this long-running Dundee schools singing competition. I’ve created a Microsoft mini-questionnaire so that people can contact me, and a poster for displaying or sharing. I’ve shared news of my oral history research project via Facebook, Bluesky and Linked in. And folk are getting in touch! I am really excited to say that in less than a week, I’ve already been contacted by quite a lot of people. Best of all, they’re already sharing memories of the Leng Scots Song competition that are exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to hear about – which goes to show that I’ve plainly come up with a really good topic to investigate (if I might be so bold as to say!)

Here’s the link to the questionnaire:- https://tinyurl.com/LengMemories

This research is being funded by an Athenaeum Award from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Silver and Gold: Leng Medal Memories

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
A Silver Leng Medal for Scots song singing

Do you have schooldays memories of taking part in the Dundee-based Leng Medal Scots song singing competitions?  Perhaps you were a proud prize-winner of a Silver or Gold Leng Medal? 

Maybe you didn’t actually win, but the memories are still vivid? You might remember the song you chose, or which song book you sang from? Or you helped someone else polish up their performance?

Maybe you’ve never stopped singing Scottish songs?

Newspaper engraving of Sir John Leng (Illustrated London News, Saturday 10 June 1983)
Sir John Leng: Dundee benefactor

I’m on the staff of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a postdoctoral research fellow, researching Scottish music.  Whilst investigating an old Scottish song book aimed at school pupils in the post-war era, I became fascinated by the initiative of Sir John Leng (1828-1906), who endowed the singing prize 125 years ago. He died 120 years ago, but his singing competition is still live and kicking all these years later.  Encouraging kids to sing Scottish songs was obviously a good thing!

Would you like to help me?  If so, I’d be very grateful if you could fill in a very short questionnaire, and I’ll get back in touch as soon as I can to arrange an interview with anyone who has a story to tell!

I decided to find out more, and I’m embarking on a project to talk to as many Leng medallists, entrants, teachers or adjudicators as possible.  The Sir John Leng Trust endorses this research, and is looking forward to hearing what I uncover. 

My research is made possible with the support of an Athenaeum Award from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO SHORT QUESTIONNAIRE